


Extra Scenes and Drabbles

by imagineyou (jokerindisguise), jokerindisguise



Series: Our World Is a Supernova [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader is a Grimes, Sophia Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27382414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jokerindisguise/pseuds/imagineyou, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jokerindisguise/pseuds/jokerindisguise
Summary: Extra scenes and drabbles set before, during, and afterMeet Me Under the Stars.
Series: Our World Is a Supernova [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741792
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13





	Extra Scenes and Drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> Set before the events of MMUts and from Rick's POV.

Rick had always been sure that he would do just about anything for his family. 

He had his fights with Lori, but he knew that they could weather any storm. From a teen pregnancy to financial struggles to marital strain, they were able to stick together through it all. 

He loved his children fiercely and he knew that he would die to protect them. Even though his relationship with Y/N wasn't where he wanted it to be and even though Carl had to suffer through his fights with Lori and see him at his worst, he knew that his kids loved him. He knew that when push came to shove, their love for him was about the only thing keeping him going. 

He knew that he could also count on Shane. Shane, who had been a constant presence in his life for years. Shane, who had been there for him through every fight with Lori and had practically helped raise Y/N and Carl. Shane, who was always going to be his best friend and family. 

Rick knew that with the four of them in his life, he would always have something to fight for. 

He just didn't think that when he woke up from a coma, it would be to find out his family was nowhere in sight and the world had ended. 

The only real motivation he had to keep going was the thought that he would eventually find his family. When Atlanta turned out to be a bust and overrun by the ravenous undead, he worried that he wouldn't find them. It seemed like there was death everywhere he looked and he feared that he would find a familiar face among the dead. 

Relief warred with grief as he left Atlanta with his new group. They claimed they had a home for him, and while he was sorely tempted to take them up on their offer of shelter, he knew that he couldn't settle down until he found his loved ones. 

When he got to the Atlanta camp and saw Lori and Carl, he could hardly believe his luck. When he looked over while embracing them and saw Shane standing there, he thought he might be dreaming. Everything after he woke up from his coma seemed like one never-ending fever dream, but with his little boy and wife in his arms, he could start to believe that it was real. That _he_ was real. 

The only thing that really hurt was that Y/N wasn't with them. He couldn't bear the thought of his daughter out there all by herself. He wouldn't even consider the possibility that she wasn't alive anymore. He knew his daughter. She was resourceful. She was stubborn. She was the best of him and Lori and even Shane. She would be okay. 

That didn't stop the nightmares from happening. He was plagued each night with fictitious realities in which he found Y/N as a walker. Most of the nightmares consisted of going back to the house in King County just to see Y/N waiting for him. But she was never alive and he always had to put her down. In the dreams, he convinced himself it was a mercy killing, but it was the cruelest trick his mind could play on him. 

He wanted to go search for her. He knew that she would have been at school when disaster struck. He hoped that she would have tried to make her way home. But what if he was too late? What if she never made it there? 

It was selfish and foolish, but he never fully broached the topic with either Lori or Shane. He didn't really have to. Sometimes, when he caught Lori staring off into the distance as if she longed to see her little girl walking down the road or when Shane met his eyes, a yearning tinged with grief clear in his expression, he knew they were thinking of her. 

By the time they learned that the CDC was a pipe dream, he was starting to consider searching for her. He couldn't help but think that he had to know. He had to find her. And if she was a walker and no longer the little girl he remembered, then he would do what had to be done. 

It wouldn't be easy and he would rather die than harm her, but he couldn't leave her like that. He wouldn't. 

Before he could tell Lori or Shane that he wanted to look for Y/N, the group ran into trouble. Between a traffic jam and a broken-down RV, the last thing they needed was a shambling herd of the undead and Sophia getting lost in the woods. 

His heart broke with every moment he searched for Sophia in the woods with Daryl. It completely shattered when Carol begged him to find her little girl. All of her concerns about Sophia alone and surviving on her own echoed his own fears about Y/N so strongly that he had to stop himself from combing the woods for Carol's lost little girl and his own in the dark. 

He couldn't risk it, though. The threat of getting surprised by a walker was higher at night. He wanted to find Sophia and he wanted to find Y/N, but if he went into the woods and never came out, then what would become of the loved ones he would leave behind? 

Even though he knew every second that passed without finding Sophia didn't bode well for the fate of Carol's daughter, he couldn't help but hold out hope. He had left Sophia to take care of the walkers on their trail and it was his fault that she wasn't with the group now. He would find her and he would save her. He _had_ to. 

His hope was nearly completely devastated when Carl was shot. He couldn't stand the idea of his little boy taking a moment to enjoy the beauty left in a world half-gone only to be punished for it. It was cruel and unfair. Unfortunately, it was their new reality. 

By the time he had lost enough blood to leave him nearly senseless in an effort to save Carl, he was hit with the startling realization that he could very well lose both of his kids. He knew it was a sick and twisted situation that many faced in the new world, but it never occurred to him that it could happen to him. Not Y/N, he pleaded with a higher authority. Not Carl either, he begged with a fervency he hoped would be heard. 

Everything seemed to pass in a daze after that. He was so desperate to save at least one of his children that he wanted nothing more than to join Shane and Otis on their scavenging mission. He wanted to be of more use than sitting in a chair beside his son's bedside and watching him slowly die right before his eyes. 

All he could think about were Jenner's words to him right before they left the CDC. Everyone was infected. Everyone was tainted by whatever disease was reanimating the dead and turning them into mindless, hungry monsters. The realization that everyone in their group had the potential to become walkers was horrifying, but there was something else that truly terrified him in that moment. 

If Carl died, then he would come back as a walker. If Carl woke up as one of the undead, then who was going to carry out the unthinkable? 

He was scared that it would have to be him. 

As time wore on and there was no sign of Shane or Otis, he started to worry that he would lose even more of his family. Hershel didn't seem to think the odds were in their favor and Lori was slowly unraveling as Carl's condition worsened. 

He wasn't sure if it was sheer dumb luck or a blessing from God when Shane showed up. He had a moment to mourn Otis, but it was overwritten by the pure relief that Hershel would be able to save his boy. 

He hadn't lost Shane and he wouldn't lose Carl. He could only hope that one day he would be reunited with Y/N to complete the family he was fighting so hard for. 

After Carl's surgery, the group's focus went back to finding Sophia. Daryl had taken to scouring the woods for her, but Rick feared it wouldn't be enough. They would have to organize search parties and attempt to get a better lay of the land in order to have any shot at finding the lost girl. 

As each hour passed without any hope of finding her, he began to fear it was a lost cause. He had pressure from all sides to either find Sophia or to give up. He felt like his head was spinning from having to endure one tragedy to the next and while he wished more than anything that he could just stop and take a breath, he knew that it was a luxury he couldn't afford. Not when Carol's daughter was still lost. Not when his own was somewhere out there all by herself. 

When he heard the screaming and yelling, he feared the worst. He was so sure that a walker had stumbled upon the farm. He thought maybe it was the herd from the highway. His mind cycled through every worst-case scenario he could possibly dream up, but for the first time in what felt like years, it was good news. 

He saw Carol take off across the field in the direction of the woods that lined the Greene farm. He could just make out the little girl Carol rushed to embrace. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief at the sight of Sophia reunited with her mother. 

When he caught sight of Daryl turning to talk to a woman standing with them, he let himself focus on her for the first time. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He was sure that he was getting his hopes up. It couldn’t be. He had never been so lucky in all his life, but maybe he was due for some good fortune. 

When he heard Shane suck in a sharp, startled breath beside him, he started to believe that it was real. 

"Is that--" Shane started, before he cut himself off like he too was too afraid to hope. 

"Y/N," Rick finished before he took off across the field, wanting nothing more than to see for himself that his daughter was alive. 

As he got closer, he began to recognize the features he had grown so accustomed to seeing since the first time he held his baby girl in his arms. When she turned to look at him, he knew for sure that he was right. 

By the time he drew to a stop just a couple of feet away from her, he could feel tears begin to well in his eyes. He wasn't sure if it was because he was just so damn happy to see her or he was trying so hard not to blink because he feared she would disappear the second he closed his eyes. He didn't care that his eyesight was blurring from tears or that he couldn't stop staring, because another miracle had been handed to him. 

It was her. It was Y/N. 

She was alive. She was breathing. She was unharmed. She was _alive_ and standing right in front of him, looking just as gobsmacked as he felt. 

And he could breathe again.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been so desperate to get back into writing for The Walking Dead. I recently started my rewatch to (hopefully) remind myself of series events so I can write the sequel to MMUtS. I got to the scene where Carol is crying after Daryl and Rick come back after not finding Sophia just after the herd and talking about her daughter lost alone in the woods and I couldn't help but think about my version of Rick for the series. At that point in my 'verse, Rick would be thinking about the daughter he might have lost too. So, I got inspired and wrote this little drabble. Thank you to anyone who reads this. It really is going to mean so much to me. 
> 
> And if you want to request that I write an extra scene from someone's POV in my MMUtS 'verse? Then please let me know or send me an ask on [tumblr!](https://midnightseance.tumblr.com/) I really want to get the hang of writing for TWD again and this is the best way until I'm done with my rewatch.


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